你好!!

        Well I finally decided that after being here for a little over a month, it was time to send in a report. Everything in Taiwan台灣 is so awesome. I live in Hualien City 花蓮市, which is located in the middle of the east coast. To the east is the ocean(obviously) and to the west are the mountains. Living in Florida my whole life, the mountains were the most beautiful thing in the world, especially when they're right up against the ocean. My home in awesome. It's 4 floors but kinda narrow, my room's on the 3rd floor  and I really hate having to go up or down 2 flights of stairs everytime I want something. I've learned to slide down the banisters when going down :D I live here with my host mom and older brother, both of whom I love to pieces. I finally have the older brother I always wanted. They're always watching out for me and making sure I do things right. My brother speaks a tiny bit of English and my mom speaks almost none, but that's ok, it just means that I have to learn Chinese to communicate, which I'm working really hard on.          My school is pretty good. I go to Hualien Gaogong花蓮高工 with 4 other exchange students. 3 from the US and 1 from Mexico. We have to wear this ugly uniform, though. It's always a white, button-down shirt and red skirt on Mondays and Wednesdays and black pants on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The guys always wear grey pants. One of my classmates shortened my skirt for me, cuz it was just too long, but I don't know what to do about the pants. They're so baggy around the hip area, I hate it. The guys have tighter pants then me!! My schedule goes a litle bit like this. In the morings, we go to class at 7:30 for a half hour of homeroom and then us exchange go to our own classroom for Chinese class. We have an independent study hour and then 2 hours with a teacher. Then we have an elective class. Mondays and Fridays are PE, Tuesdays are music, Thursdays are art, and Wednesdays we have another hour of indenpendent study. After that, at noon, we have lunch and then we go back to our homeroom classes for naptime. Classes start again at 1:00. I'm in thecomputer drawing profram at my school, so my afternoon classes mostly revolve around that. It's not art drawing, more like architecture drawing. My Monday and Tuesday classes are 2D computer design and Fridays are 3D computer design. Thursdays are actual drawing on paper, which I'm getting really good at. I'm learning a lot of useful math cuz you need it in order to figure out the right dimensions and stuff like that. Wednesdays are very laid back. I just hang out in different classes all afternoon cuz they don't do anything unless there's an assembly. Supposedly, it's the day when all the clubs happen but none of them have started yet so its hang out day. Classes are 50 minutes long with 10 minute breaks in between so my afternoon classes are actually 3 of the same class back to back. Teachers are always leaving the room for long periods of time but the students are still very behaved. Also, they students are responsiblr for keeping the school clean. There are no janitors, so from 4-4:10 the kids clean the classroom and the outside is done in the morning. My school is really, really dirty by the way....it makes my school in America look spotless. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, schools lets out at 5:10 and on Wednesdays and Fridays it's 4:30. Monday and Wednesday mornings we have shenchi升旗 flag raising ceremony and inspection, while Wednesday and Friday afternoons are jianchi降旗 flag lowering ceremony. Students have to stand in formation by class on the sports field for 15-20 minutes. It's crazy and it's soooooo hot outside. Still, I love my school and the only problem I have with it is having to wakeup at 6am but whatever, I'd have to do it if I was in Ameria anyway.

       Now that I've bored you to death with this crazy long report, I wish you the best and thank you so much for sending me to Taiwan, the greatest place on Earth. Oh yea, sorry for all the Chinese but I'm so excited to have learned how to type, I just want to show it off :D and hopefully soon I'll be able to send you my pics but they're all on my laptop which no longer as Internet :(

我愛大家,

<3 Alicia 陳莉夏